Question about the blue light

T

tiburone9162003

New member
hey guys have a question,on the light my aquapod came with,the there its blue bulb light,white and the 2 LED. they look good except blue light,there its like 2 tubes for the blue but they together in one connection,one of the tube turns blue,other one dosent,its that how it suppost to be?
 
So it doesn't turn on at all or is just white?

Doesn't turn on at all is broke......get a new one, white is good as is working perfectly.

See....these are exactly the questions I wanted you to discover about options and why I tried to steer you towards a smaller tank so you can learn before leaping into a large tank.

What you have my friend is a Powercompact (PC) lighting system. They typically have two "split" bulbs as you see. They are more intense than regular "normal output" or N.O. Flourecent (sp) lighting. To keep things simple....T5 lighting is just a powercompact streched out.....(simply stated, and there is more than that such as bulb choices, reflectors, etc), (see our newly apointed T5 guru Justin74 for info pertaining to them cuz hes your man on those), Then there is Metal Halide lighting,(my personal favorite), with a myriad of wattages for intensities and bulb choices.

To answer you question now that we have the background......you have what is called a 50/50 Actinic/daylight Powercompact bulb......PC bulbs come in either all daylight(white) or all Actinic(blue) or a 50/50 like you have, to save space......both are needed for the proper intensity and color spectrum to get corals to grow and look good.......That discussion gets WAY more complicated when talking about MH and SPS corals....because really nobody knows for sure WHAT is the best combination yet.......making for cryptic and confusing answers for the beginner.
 
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Then sounds like if it is a full attinic bulb and only 1/2 of the bulb is lighting up then the bulb sounds bad. Try making sure the contacts are clean first. If this does not work and the unit was bought new then take it back to the dealer ( just the bulb ) and explain. I am sure they will ahve equipment to test it with and should have no problem replacing it.

If this is not the case then the smaller PC bulbs are generall pretty affordable unlike the Metal Hilide light which can range in the OUCH !!! areas.

Hope to see some pics, I have a major craving to get a nano working my self.
 
If it aint firing up regardless of what color it is or could be it aint firing up :) and needs to be replaced, if new bulbs does the same thing, could be an issue with the fixture itself.

-Justin
 
ok...ill try a new bulb...it looks weird to be,cuz were i work we use lots of different dual bulb like that but white and either they all go bad or they all work,and not like half and half lol...
 
The key to the solution is when you said that it said "dual actinic". There are two different types of actinic - true actinic (aka actinic 03) and another one just called blue bulb often referred to as actinic.

Actinic 03 (peaks at 420nm) looks more purple in color and is much dimmer. However, they make coral fluoresce a lot more. The green will really glow. The other actinic peaks at 460nm. To our eyes, it appears much brighter. However, corals will not fluoresce as much. Remember - just because something is "dimmer" to our eyes, it may not be dimmer to the corals.

Many vendors will sell "dual actinic" bulbs containing one of each type of actinic. They include the Actinic 03 so the corals fluoresce. But they also include the other actinic so the tank will be brighter.

So - you don't have defective bulbs. Your bulbs are just fine.

Minh
 
Only thing is, is he's saying its not a matter of being dimmer but just not coming on. But do agree one should be blue and the other purple if it is dual actinic, and the purple or true actinic wont appear as bright, or very dim to/. Seems like this happend to one of my regular day bulbs, just one of the 2 sets came on. Could be wrong but this sounds awfully familiar. Look close though cuz Minh may very well be right, they to me on the smaller ones especially look like there just barely glowin and sometimes that's questionable.

Sorry didnt get the opportunity to say hi at the meeting btw, I was thinking it!

-Justin
 
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i took out the bulb today and there its something loose inside so im sure its bad,only one side turns on blue..i when to capital where i bough my aquapod but they didnt have none...they had the 50/50 blue one side n white other but dunno...any differents? should i find the both sides blue or get 50/50?
 
If you have a day bulb already goin then Id keep tryin to find a dual act, but if they have an all blue or all act. one get that until then; but at least get a 50/50 if thats all they have.

-Justin
 
The first time I received a 50/50 dual actinics, I thought one side of the bulb was "burnt out". I called the vendor, did some research, and found out that the actinic 03 bulb appears VERY dimmed when compared the other blue bulb. But the bulb was working just fine. I would not be surprised if the OP thought his bulb is burnt when it really isn't.

If you are going to buy a replacement bulb, I would recommend going with a "dual actinic" again. Just make sure the following three item matches: 1) pin configuration. 2) watts and 3) length.

Minh
 
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